Win 2 free nights at Emerald Lake Lodge (contest page)

Emerald Lake “Tree Hugger” trail

Entries to this contest are closed.

The winner will enjoy 2 nights at Emerald Lake Lodge in Yoho National Park(any 2 nights subject to availability). You’ll practically be able to ski from your door on a number of delightful trails including Emerald Lake, the Alluvial Fan, the Tree Hugger, and the Emerald Connector. A few minutes down the road is the Kicking Horse River trail located at the Natural Bridge. This map shows the Yoho winter trails.

After a few hours on the trails, complete your day with a warming hot chocolate in the lounge at Emerald Lake Lodge, or soak in the outdoor hot tub under the stars!

Two ways to enter

You can enter this contest by leaving a comment or sending a photo.

1. Photo entries

Attach a photo to your email and send it to bobtruman@shaw.ca. Please limit the caption for your photo to 50 words or less. I will attach your name to the photo. Don’t panic if your photo doesn’t show up right away. I should have it on within a couple days.

2. Comment entries

Scroll down and click on add one now to leave a comment. Sometimes comments don’t show up right away because they need to be approved. I usually get to them within hours, and they will then appear.

Here are some suggestions for the subject of your comment:

What will you be doing on Christmas day? on New Year’s eve?

What would you say to encourage a new skier?

A favourite ski memory from years past

How did you originally find this blog?

Any other topic of your choice

Entry deadline is Sunday Dec 24, 2017 at 11:59 pm.

We’ll draw a winner within one week after the entry deadline.

The fine print:

One entry per person. If you leave a comment AND a photo, your name will be entered only once.

First names are okay if you don’t want to leave your full name, but make sure you leave your email address with your comment. I’m the only one who sees it, and that’s how I will contact you if you win.

Entrant must be 18 or over

You must be a cross-country skier.

The winner must respond to my contact email within three days of the draw. If no response, a new winner will be chosen.

Good luck and I look forward to reading some interesting comments and seeing some neat photos.

Photo entries(hover your mouse over the photo for entrant’s name; click on photo for caption):

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Snow, oh sweet cold snow, come again to
laden those tree tops standing sentinels to the storm wind.
Hickory flex, bamboo lean, crystals squeak
and the scent of fir issue forth: for we are truly all blessed.

I ski for the connection, calm and perspective. There is something extra special in Yoho and Emerald Lake areas – skiing and hiking surrounded by 500 million year old fossil beds! A magnificent reminder of our fleeting and minute place in things.

Emerald Lake really is one of the magical places on earth during all seasons. However, being a snow lover myself I have to say skiing the Alluvian Fan or along the lake shore is always a highlight to our winter adventures. To stay here would top off the trip and the fact there is no TV or internet connection sweetens the prospect. Warm wishes to all at this holiday season!!! Happy days in the outdoors however that looks for you!!!!
BTW love this site!!!!

I missed out on skiing at Emerald Lake last winter, one of my favorite places to ski. It is so magical at night and the food at the Lodge is outstanding. I definitely hope to make it there this winter for a price-less getaway.

I have enjoyed many years of skiing the beautiful trails in AB but this Christmas am in Nelson BC and both the downhill and cross country skiing are superb.
I’m hoping the new year will bring lots of new snow to our mountains.
Merry Christmas!

My favorite skiing memory is when myself and 3 girlfriend tricked into skoki to celebrate my 40th – i love that the sport allows you to get out and enjoy such peaceful places few others venture into. In order to maximize our skiing days this year with the kids we bought a family pass to canmore which we figure will ensure much snow in the mountains all winter for us! (murphy’s law right?)

On Christmas Day, I’ll be skiing downhill at Whitewater (Nelson, BC). But today MIchelle and I were checking out the Rail Trail. Starting in Nelson, we skied south (up the old railway grade) 7 km and then back. Very nice! Excellent snow and tracks, especially considering that it is a multi-use trail, with lots of walkers and dogs. A couple of pics.to follow.

Cross country skiing is the best activity for me? Why? Because I am frugal, enjoy being outdoors, am not a risk taker, and like to earn my downhills by going uphill. There is no better form of aerobic activity in my book. Some people complain about Alberta winter, but there is a reason I moved here from further south. Bring on the cold and snow!

We have recently taken advantage of the Emerald Lake Lodge “SkierBob special” that is advertised on this site; we are looking forward to our post-Christmas escape, which we have booked for mid-January 2018. I’m sure we could manage to tough out a second multi-day visit if we really had to…

Looking forward to skiing around on the Mount Shark trails, followed by afternoon tea at Mount Engadine lodge this New Years Eve. Would love to add in a weekend getaway at Emerald Lake in the new year to get out on the trails and then relax at the lodge.

So happy to see that snow is finally arriving in the Bow Valley. Heading there for the winter just after Christmas and hoping for another season of great conditions and exploring the endless possibilities of wonderful groomed trails. Shark, PLPP, Pipestone, MLR, Lake Louise, Ribbon Creek….just can’t decide which is my fave!

I can’t wait for all the cross-country skiing we’ve got planned for the holidays! I hope today’s snowfall holds and is complemented with even more snow and fresh grooming. We’ll also be introducing three new friends to the wonderful sport. We always tell them to remember the 3 Ls of cross-country skiing. Can you guess what they are?

Fantastic Birthday ski!
I was so spoiled today as I enjoyed a fantastic birthday ski with my husband, daughter & boyfriend, and our son. We went to Lake Louise and skied the Fairview Loop. We then headed across the lake and took up the Telemark trail. Thrilling downhills were definitely a great part of our day! Beautiful snow draping the trees made for a great family photo!
I LOVE cross-country skiing!

This is one of the first years I am not spending Christmas Day with family. I am driving from Calgary to Los Angeles to do some sightseeing. Therefore, Christmas Day I will be in Yellowstone National Park cross county skiing. This will be my first time skiing outside of Canada. I’m so excited!!! 🙂

My neighbour sent me this article about pursuing nature, which Scandinavians call friluftsliv (pronounced free-loofts-liv). The expression literally translates as “open-air living” and was popularised in the 1850s by the Norwegian playwright and poet, Henrik Ibsen, who used the term to describe the value of spending time in remote locations for spiritual and physical wellbeing. Today I was all by myself on the impeccably freshly groomed Alluvial Fan. If I win this contest, I will invite my FRILUFTSLIV neighbour, Ann to join me.

I’ve been hooked on Cross Country skiing since my early 20’s and that journey has led me on 1000kms of trails from the Rockies to Australia where I taught skiing one summer. My best memory from that was skiing the Australian Hoppett in horizontal wind with ice crystals stinging my face whilst avoiding wombat poop on the trail!

I think my eldest daughter has “turned the corner”, regarding XC skiing, at last. Taken way too long. Earlier on the weekend she was complaining about the lack of snow and how she wants to go skiing. aaaaaaaaaahhh words I’ve been waiting forever to hear.

When my son was 2 years old (he is in his 40’s now), I tucked him into a sleeping bag and loaded him on the padded toboggan. After about half an hour of skiing on the golf course, he was fast asleep. As I skied up a steepish hill, the toboggan suddenly became much lighter; the load had slid off. I looked back and there lay a bundled boy still sleeping soundly. I gently pulled the package back onto the toboggan and continued skiing with this magical memory intact.

On Christmas Day, after opening presents with my family, I will be heading out for a nice long classic ski on the trails in Sun Valley! It is a first for me. I would love to start the New Year with a ski at Emerald Lake.
Love this site Bob! Wishing you a wonderful holiday season.

My favourite ski memories are from years ago in Ft McMurray when we would gather with friends on the trails to ski and then later find a place to cut our Christmas trees and string up a big pot over a fire for hot rum toddies. I love winter with lots of snow!

Favorite ski memory: skiing in and out of Assiniboine from our base at the Bryant Creek hut. Getting caught out a little too late and returning under a full moon. The snow glittered and the night was luminous. Dangerous (we were definitely overextended) but beautiful.

On Christmas day when I am back home my brother and I always go out for a pre-brunch ski on the golf course ski trails. One year when it was -30 we bundled up and managed to ski 5 km before calling it a day and going back home to enjoy some delicious food.

I started XC as a kid(12) in Saskatchewan when my mother decided we needed more family time and bought the whole family skis. I was the only one in the family that fell in love with it. Moved to Alberta with the rest of the working populace in 1999. Since then I have developed a love for skiing the mountain trails and try to get as many trips as I can. I have never made it to emerald lake in the winter, I did not even know they have trails up there. I would love to try it.

I’ve just read the comments that are posted so far and had to laugh at the one about sitting in the hot tub and then rolling around in the snow! I was challenged to do something crazy on my 40th birthday a few years ago. My sister had taken me to Zion National Park in Utah for a few days, and we were blessed with magical snow over the red rocks and crags on my birthday. The lodge had an outdoor hot tub, and rolling in the snow afterward was the crazy thing I decided to do (yeah, I’m pretty tame). Talk about feeling alive! I’d love to recapture that sensation at Emerald Lake Lodge!

The last time we stayed at Emerald Lake lodge was the first, and only, time we combined hot tub soaking with rolled around in the snow, I can still feel my skin tingling, we’re ready and willing to try that again!

My goal for this new year is to become a proficient cross country skier and take an avalanche safety course. In the process I hope to encourage my mother to get more active again by luring her out to the trails ?

How would I encourage new skiers? I AM one myself, after more than 30 years with my skis in the basement. I went out last year and loved it all over again. Just give it a try, there’s nothing quite like it!

This is my first time on your site – I know I’ll be visiting it again and again this winter.
I bought a pair of x country skis last year at a swap, ever since then I’ve been eager to keep active and outside during winter! I’m in my 20s and am getting all my friends on board.

I decided to get back into xc skiing last year after a 10 year hiatus and am smitten. We bought gear last Feb and got out more than 15 times all the up to mid April when grooming stopped. This year our 4 year old is starting lessons, so excited. I want very badly to go to emerald lake.